Pet Welfare Assistant

We're recruiting a Pet Welfare Assistant for onsite animal care as part of our Rehoming & Fostering team in Suffolk! At Blue Cross, we're dedicated to providing the best care possible to pets in need. As a Pet Welfare Assistant for our onsite services, you'll play an important role in our mission, ensuring that every pet receives the love, attention, and support they deserve during their stay at our Suffolk rehoming centre.

More about the role. Our Suffolk Centre has a wonderful group of dedicated people with varying skills that meld into one team with one mission: to help as many pets as possible. With great facilities, including a woodland, the team are proud of what they can accomplish on a daily basis together. As a skilled animal handler and assessor, you will be responsible for the 'preparation stage' with the pets in our care which involves caring, carrying out assessments and rehabilitation plans, preparing them for the 'adoption stage' or the best possible outcome for their circumstances with minimal delay.

As a Pet Welfare Assistant, you will ensure that the welfare standards are met and that rehabilitation plans are followed and supported for pets in our care. Working independently and with the team you will carry out meetings with owners giving up their pet, ensuring all information is recorded, paperwork completed and that the pet is immediately assessed for behavioural or veterinary problems.

Working closely with the Adoptions Coordinator you will provide additional in person or virtual advice and practical demonstrations to ensure adoptees are fully aware of the work that has been done with the pet and how to continue with any other additional behaviour training or medical provision. At our Suffolk rehoming centre, we provide onsite accommodation for pets in our care 24/7.

Overnight shifts are usually undertaken by team members who live on site. Occasionally, you will be expected to carry out night checks or stay in onsite accommodation overnight when the resident team members are either not working or away for a period of time. The working hours are Saturday and Sunday each week, this is a total of 15 hours per week.

If you excel in an environment where you can see the difference you make every day, then this is the role for you. Interested? Then apply and let's work together to see if this is the role for you.

• Experience of having previously worked or volunteered with domestic animals or in an animal welfare environment. Some of this experience must have been with dogs.
• Previous experience in working in a customer focused environment and used to achieving a high level of customer satisfaction.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Good organisational and administration skills to include computerised systems.
• Current full driving licence.

It would be great (but not essential) if you also had:

• Qualification or similar experience in animal behaviour or animal training.
• Experience of cash handling.
• Experience of working to strict health and safety procedures.
• Understanding of safeguarding issues.

Want to know more detail? Great! We have attached the job description which hopefully gives you everything you need.

Our people are the most important part of delivering our purpose. If it were not for their amazing efforts and commitment, we would not be able to make the difference that we do today. In return, Blue Cross wants to ensure we provide you with the best working environment we can. We want you to be happy working for us and will do everything we can to make sure you are.

• Enhanced annual leave entitlement: 30 days plus bank holidays
• Pension scheme with enhanced employer contribution
• Health cash plan
• Life assurance
• Unlimited access to an employee assistance programme
• Programmes for physical and mental wellbeing support
• Free access to GP via Met Life
• Recognition scheme Annual volunteer days
• Claim for professional fees